[url]http://www.cnn.com/2003/BUSINESS/06/26/australia.metalstorm/index.html[/url]
[img]http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/BUSINESS/06/26/australia.metalstorm/story.metal.storm.fire.jpg[/img]
BRISBANE, Australia (CNN) -- Imagine a gun that fires a million rounds a minute -- enough to shred a target in a blink of an eye, or throw up a defensive wall against an incoming missile.
This is Metal Storm, a weapons system that forsakes old-style mechanics for the speed of electronics.
Its inventor is Mike O'Dwyer, a one-time grocer in the Australian city of Brisbane. He's spent 30 years and much of his own money to develop the technology.
Now, finally, the doors are opening for him at the Pentagon, the U.S. Defense Department's headquarters.
O'Dwyer says that the real value comes from Metal Storm's electronic capability to deliver rates of fire and different types of projectiles very precisely.
The weapons range from a handgun that can only be operated by an authorized user to a grenade launcher that can fire either lethal or non-lethal ammunition.
While much of the technology is a closely guarded secret, the firing mechanism has no moving parts. Instead, it uses electronic ballistics technology. Unlike other guns, the only parts which move are the bullets.
[b]The Metal Storm handgun employs electronic locking, which can limit firing access and stop unauthorized use. It can even be programmed not to fire within, say, the grounds of a school.[/b]
[img]http://www.metalstorm.com/12_odwyervle/what_is_images/reloading.jpg[/img]
Its grenade launcher can give the same defensive security as a minefield, but without physically putting any explosives in the area being guarded. Instead, sensors can alert an operator to any intrusion. The operator can then decide whether to use lethal or non-lethal grenades to warn off -- or destroy -- the intruder.
O'Dwyer is a passionate advocate of applying technology to modern warfare and the rise of networking in defense thinking.
A 16-pod grenade launcher -- one of the Metal Storm range.
"Where network-centric warfare is going is moving the principal systems of weapons from the big, heavy, slow stuff to the small, light, fast, inexpensive (weapons), many of (which) -- and here's the important part -- is very smart."
It's this promise of speed and flexibility that has got the American and Australian military to commit $60 million in research and development funding for O'Dwyer's array of weapons.
Metal Storm started in a small Brisbane workshop, where all the prototypes have been built.
Increasingly, the project looks to the United States, where most of its staff are now based and where it hopes to clinch sales to defense agencies and police forces next year.
Going global has been in O'Dwyer's sights for many years. It's a target that gets a little larger and a little closer every day.
[url]http://www.metalstorm.com/[/url]

WOW, 60 seconds of firing is more than most of us will ever shoot in a life time! What does the goberment pay for 1 million rounds of what ever caliber it shoots? Cause, there goes our tax cut.[rolleyes]

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Looking at their website, the rounds are "stacked" in the barrel.
[img]http://www.metalstorm.com/10_technology/technology_images/vle045.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.metalstorm.com/10_technology/technology_images/storm.jpg[/img]

Metal Storm's technology achieves its unparalleled performance through the concept of numerous bullets stacked in a barrel, with each bullet separated by a propellant load, such that the leading propellant can be reliably ignited to fire the bullet, without the resulting high pressure and temperature causing unplanned blowby ignition of the trailing propellant load, and without collapse of the projectile column in the barrel.
This unique concept has been accomplished through the invention of a bullet which on the one hand expands and locks in the barrel in response to high pressure immediately in front of the bullet. As a consequence, each bullet in turn can be fired in sequence from the barrel, and an individual barrel tube, loaded with numerous rounds and exclusive of any ammunition feed or ejection system, breech opening, or any mechanical operation whatsoever, when provided with an electric priming system is, in effect, a complete weapon.

Originally Posted By Dredd308:
The weapons range from a handgun that can only be operated by an authorized user to a grenade launcher that can fire either lethal or non-lethal ammunition.

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So what's new about that?

[b]The Metal Storm handgun employs electronic locking, which can limit firing access and stop unauthorized use. It can even be programmed not to fire within, say, the grounds of a school.[/b]

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It can even be overridden be technically savvy criminals to limit firing access, say, during a robbery. I just don't like they whole idea of something else other that me being able to determine when I can shoot or not.

Its grenade launcher can give the same defensive security as a minefield, but without physically putting any explosives in the area being guarded. Instead, sensors can alert an operator to any intrusion. The operator can then decide whether to use lethal or non-lethal grenades to warn off -- or destroy -- the intruder.

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And what is the baddie doing while you're deciding weather or not to use lethal or non-lethal force?

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

oh yeah - supposedly about 13 years ago this guy was going to get ripped off by the USA (they wanted to just "take" the technology from him...)
Didn't the budget get shut down a few years ago for Metalstorm? They were going to use it for missile defense.
I think the child (unauthorized user) safety crap is worthless.

Its not exactly a gun (IE: title 1, title 2) per se (I think)
It fires more like a muzzleloader(from that pic of the pistol). Caseless ammo that when the first round goes off, the second is set off and so forth.
Seems simple enough to build on your own actually.